GROUP 14: FORESTS

International negotiations have often reflected a particular interest in forest resources, both for their role in reducing emissions caused by deforestation and environmental degradation, and for their function as “carbon sinks” for the absorption of Co2.

The protection of forests is not only about preserving trees, however. It is also about preserving a vital process initiated millions of years ago. Forests are spaces inhabited by a diverse group of living things – vegetable, animal, and human (including Indigenous peoples).

What should be the essential elements of a proposal for the integral and sustainable management of forests in the face of climate change, which would also recognize the rights of Indigenous communities that reside in forests? Does Copenhagen represent progress in this direction?

2 comments

The glamor for a working International Climate Change Policy will not be successful if it falls short of addressing deforestation and putting sufficient safeguards on implementation of REDD projects. This must be based on the Free Prior and Informed Consent of forest dwellers.

Let us be vigilant and ensure that the language on the final REDD text at COP 16 is strong on safeguards and has a defined and ambitious timeframe on halting deforestation. The process begins at the World Conference on Climate Change. This is because as indigenous peoples we are the forest and the forest is all about our culture,survival and way of life. It is a matter of life and Death. That is indeed the passion we have.

A missing element in many discussion about forests is the very rapidly escalating trend towards burning wood for electricity and heat, as well as cellulosic fuels and other bioenergy. A new international trade in wood chips is developing quickly, In the US we have over 200 proposed biomass incinerators as well as about the same number in operation. Given it requires close to 13,000 tons of wood per megawatt per year for these facilities, they are entirely unsustainable and a massive threat to remaining forests. On the one hand we are intended to protect forests for their carbon storage and on the other we are burning them as “renewable” energy. The incentives and subsidies going to biomass burning for electricity are all based on the entirely false premise that it is “carbon neutral”. The scale and magnitude of this trend is extremely troubling to those who follow it! I hope this can be brought into discussions in Bolivia. Burning anything, especially forests, is not “renewable energy”.